Former IRS Official Calls Conservatives 'Crazies' and Worse in Newly Released Emails

Former IRS senior official Lois Lerner apparently believed conservatives were "a-holes" and "crazies," according to emails released by the House Ways and Means Committee today.

In a letter to Attorney General Eric Holder, committee c hairman Rep. Dave Camp, R-Michigan, released a redacted email exchange from Lerner's official IRS email account that Republicans believe shows she held personal bias and hostility against conservatives.

In the Nov. 9, 2012 email evidently sent while Lerner was vacationing in England, she appeared to refer to conservatives as "a-holes" and suggest they could cause the downfall of the federal government.

"So we don't need to worry about alien teRrorists. (sic) It's our own crazies that will take us down," Lerner wrote in an email to a recipient whose identity was redacted. A Republican aide at the Ways and Means Committee said the person Lerner was emailing was not an agency employee.

The unknown person said American talk radio shows were "scary to listen to" and said callers to those shows were "rabid."

The House voted earlier this year to find Lerner in contempt of Congress and also, on a separate resolution, to request that Holder appoint a special prosecutor to investigate the targeting of conservative nonprofit groups and possible criminal wrongdoing at the IRS.

So far, Holder, who is also the target of articles impeachment in the House, has maintained that he will not comply with the House's request.

"Despite the serious investigation and evidence this committee has undertaken into the IRS's targeting of individuals for their beliefs, there is no indication that DOJ is taking this matter seriously," Camp said. "In light of this new information, I hope DOJ will aggressively pursue this case and finally appoint a special counsel, so the full truth can be revealed and justice is served."

Americans for Tax Reform president Grover Norquist also slammed Lerner as a "political hack."

"Lois Lerner's exposed emails show the world she was and is a political hack driven by her own partisan agenda rather than a neutral public servant," Norquist stated. "The IRS has too much power and too much access to Americans' private information for this position to be filled [by] a partisan activist."